Listen to the isolated drum track on youtube and tell me he didn't use a double bass pedals on this.

Either that or he is ridiculously quick with one pedal.

It's not like it was unheard of to use a double bass pedals at the time, Cream's debut album has been out for nearly half a year when they were recording Good Morning Good Morning, and Ginger Baker was big on the double bass pedals. Same with the Jimi Hendrix Experience who were recording their debut album in London the same time The Beatles were recording Pepper. Maybe they drew alot of their insperations from these two bands and even Ringo felt the need to imatate them a little.

Is there anyway of finding out, cause the recording does sound like a kick, but a sloppy one at that. But bare in mind that these isolated tracks are probably from 'The Beatles Rock Band' so the sound gets messed up when ripping them from the game.

28 September 20127.53pm

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I wonder. It does sound like it may be the case - and it would impress me if it was the case. I know during Strawberry fields Paul 'gave ringo a hand' particularilly at the end of a song - there's a photo i've seen from the recording session which shows Ringo playing the kit, but Paul standing behind him just playing on the floor tom. At first i thought that was the same thing going on in Good Morning Good Morning, but it does sound a lot like a double bass pedal more than anything.

Anyways, Ringo was a BOSS drummer and more often than not he doesn't get his due respect, so i'd love for this to be true.

28 September 20129.50pm

Von Bontee

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Dunno 'bout Ringo, but Mitch Mitchell didn't use double bass drums at that point in his career!

Sorry to interrupt...carry on!

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4 October 201210.24am

Joe

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I've a feeling there was a lot of echo applied, which gave a delay-type effect. It's the same on Strawberry Fields Forever, best heard towards the end (and on Anthology - "Calm down Ringo" etc). I may be wrong though.

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Joe said
I've a feeling there was a lot of echo applied, which gave a delay-type effect. It's the same on Strawberry Fields Forever, best heard towards the end (and on Anthology - "Calm down Ringo" etc). I may be wrong though.

I dunno man, i've been listening to more closely and there's a clear difference between the two. On strawberry fields the 'double speed' sound doesn't sound like a bass drum, but more of a floor tom sound whereas on good morning, it's clearly a bass drum. i don't think it's a delay effect either as the pattern alternates throughout the song. On one bar you can hear it's more a standard rhythm and on the next bar it's at double speed.

The more i hear the more i am sure that it sounds like a double bass pedal. now whether or not it was pulled off on one track in recording or if an additional bass drum was added after the initial drum track is the question. somebody get a hold of Ringo.

8 January 201412.23am

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Buzzy said
Listen to the isolated drum track on youtube and tell me he didn't use a double bass pedals on this.

Either that or he is ridiculously quick with one pedal.

I doubt very much that he did, he didn't even have two tom-toms mounted on his bass drum until nearly two years later. His high-hats are opened and closed at different parts of the song which means that his left foot was busy elsewhere (although, the "flashier" drummers can alternate between the two). You can actually see the drum chart for 'Good Morning, Good Morning' while playing 'The Beatles RockBand' video game and although it's one of the more difficult drum charts, it's not because of the quick steady kick beats, it's the tricky high-hat/snare/tom bits that he plays overtop while maintaining the driving kick pedal that's the hard part. Ringo was just doing what he's always done in all likelihood here, and that's provide steady rock solid inventive drumming to yet another Beatles' classic on his primitive 4-piece kit...:-)

8 January 20141.35am

RingoStarr39

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Here's a quick answer: Yes, he did. Only on Good Morning, Good Morning though. Never on any other Beatles song. Proof is in the isolated drum track, since the bass guitar muffles the bass drum. Also, he only uses the double bass a few times; the rest of it really is with only one foot.

In the video below, he uses the double bass at these times: 1:06 (it's underneath the snare fill) and 2:14 (obviously).

Funny Paper said
The two segments of the rapid 16th beats are brief enough to be possibly one pedal.

...I don't think so.

8 January 20142.18pm

Joe

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I very much doubt it was one pedal too. I used to play the drums - it's tricky to pull off that sort of move with one foot. Also, Ringo's more of a four-to-the-floor guy - he's not prone to subtlety with his kick drums.

My hunch is that the burst of 16ths is on a floor tom or bass drum (with sticks?), though maybe not played by Ringo (someone hits a cymbal at the same time, so IMO either it's Ringo with two pedals, or it's two people/overdubbed). What's more, there's hardly any bass drum at all in that song - you'd think if he had two pedals he'd have made more use of them.

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The whole thing sounds quite scripted, with various repeating rhythm motifs. I detect the hand of Paul in planning the whole thing out. If the bass beats are not one foot-pedal, however, they sound so much like a foot-pedal as opposed to being hit with a stick that I wouldn't be surprised if Paul conferred with the engineers to figure out how to make it sound like a foot-pedal. And if it was two foot-pedals, that doesn't mean Ringo has to be operating them, the way the Beatles pieced together their compositions like collages anyway.

Some drummers may feel their pride wounded by not being responsible for every sound on their drums and/or by indulging in the easy way out of tracking over. I don't think Ringo had (or has) that particular problem.

How did you get Giles Martin to reply to you in less than 24 hours, next you should try asking him who played guitar on I'm Looking Through You so I can convince Joe that it's Paul and not John.

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23 May 20177.43am

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Looks like Giles was on the radio promoting the release of 'Pepper''s 50th.

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23 May 20174.22pm

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Dark Overlord said
How did you get Giles Martin to reply to you in less than 24 hours, next you should try asking him who played guitar on I'm Looking Through You so I can convince Joe that it's Paul and not John.

I'm like Necko only I'm a bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin and also everyone. Or is everyone me? Now I'm a confused bassist ukulele guitar synthesizer kazoo penguin everyone who is definitely not @Joe. This has been true for 2016 & 2017 but I may have to get more specific in the future.

Wait a minute, Giles only confirmed that Paul played drums with Ringo on take 1, however, according to The Beatles Bible they used take 8:

The Beatles Bible saysThe Beatles began recording Good Morning Good Morning on 8 February 1967. They recorded eight takes, the final of which was considered best.

On 16 February vocals and bass guitar were added. The somewhat chaotic recording as it stood at this stage can be heard on the Anthology 2 collection, with a different vocal but minus the various overdubs that were later added.

The song was then left until 13 March, when the brass overdubs were recorded.

They spent a long time doing the overdub, about three hours or maybe longer, but John Lennon thought it sounded too straight. So we ended up flanging, limiting and compressing it, anything to make it sound unlike brass playing. It was typical John Lennon - he just wanted it to sound weird.

On 28 March Lennon recorded new lead vocals, and Paul McCartney performed the song's guitar solo. Lennon and McCartney then taped backing vocals. The animal sound effects were also assembled, although they weren't added until the next day.

This means that it's very likely that it's just Ringo on the album, especially considering that Joe doesn't reference Paul playing drums anywhere on the page.

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